Brian Kavanagh: Campaigns and Elections

2006 Assembly Primary: 74th District

Kavanagh entered electoral politics by challenging incumbent Assemblymember Sylvia M. Friedman in the September 2006 Democratic primary for the 74th Assembly District on Manhattan's East Side . The race was a competitive multi-candidate primary. Kavanagh won with approximately 5,213 votes, defeating Friedman who received 4,857 votes, along with Esther Yang (1,022) and Juan Pagan (807) . Kavanagh campaigned on a platform of generational change, arguing that it was time for a new generation of leadership, a phrase he would later echo in his 2026 retirement announcement .

Assembly General Elections (2006 to 2016)

After winning the 2006 primary, Kavanagh won the general election and was subsequently reelected to five additional terms . His margins remained consistently dominant in the heavily Democratic district. In 2014, he won approximately 85 percent of the vote, and in 2016, he won approximately 81.6 percent . He ran on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines throughout his Assembly tenure .

2017 Special Election: 26th Senate District

In August 2017, State Senator Daniel Squadron announced his resignation from the 26th Senate District seat . Kavanagh sought the Democratic nomination for the December 5, 2017 special election . His candidacy drew some criticism because his Assembly district overlapped only partially with the Senate district, meaning he did not represent most of the constituents in the seat he was seeking . Despite this territorial criticism, Kavanagh won the Democratic nomination and defeated Republican Analicia Alexander in the special election on November 7, 2017, with approximately 85.4 percent of the vote . He took office on December 7, 2017 .

2018 General Election: 26th Senate District

Kavanagh ran for his first full Senate term in November 2018 . He faced Republican Anthony Arias and Conservative Party candidate Stuart J. Avrick in the general election on November 6, 2018, and won with approximately 87.8 percent of the vote, according to city Board of Elections data reported by Patch . Kavanagh received approximately 67,500 votes to Arias's 9,000 and Avrick's 690, based on partial returns reported by Brooklyn Paper . The campaign coincided with the November 2018 Democratic wave that flipped the State Senate to Democratic control for the first time in a decade .

2020 General Election: 26th Senate District

In the November 2020 general election, Kavanagh defeated Republican Lester Chang . His margin of victory remained comfortably in the range typical for heavily Democratic Lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn districts . He continued to hold the Working Families Party line in addition to the Democratic line .

2022 Primary and General Election: 27th Senate District

Following the 2022 redistricting, Kavanagh's territory was redrawn into the new 27th Senate District covering Lower Manhattan from the Battery to 14th Street . The redistricting removed western Brooklyn from his district . In the August 23, 2022 Democratic primary, he faced two challengers: Vittoria Fariello and Danyela Souza Egorov . Kavanagh won with 14,117 votes (58 percent), compared to Fariello's 7,110 (29.2 percent) and Egorov's 2,979 (12.2 percent) .

In the November 8, 2022 general election, he defeated Medical Freedom Party candidate Eric Rassi with 62,906 votes (95.4 percent) to Rassi's 2,684 (4 percent) . The 2022 race was his first under the new district boundaries, and his victory confirmed his base of support in Lower Manhattan's diverse communities including Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Tribeca, SoHo, Greenwich Village, and the East Village .

2024 General Election: 27th Senate District

Kavanagh ran unopposed for reelection in 2024 . Both the Democratic and Working Families Party primaries were canceled, and he won the general election on November 5, 2024 . He received endorsements from multiple organizations and elected officials during this cycle .

Decision Not to Seek Reelection in 2026

On February 3, 2026, Kavanagh announced that he would not seek reelection . He stated that the decision was difficult but that he believed it was time to make room for new leadership, echoing the generational change message from his first campaign . He noted that candidates would have ample time to come forward, submit petitions by the April 6 deadline, and make their case in the June 23 primary and November 3 general election .

Within days of the announcement, Assemblymember Grace Lee stated that she was exploring a campaign for the seat, and former Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou announced she would seek the seat . Lee and Niou have a political history in the area: Niou defeated Lee's attempt to unseat her in the 2020 Assembly race, but Lee won the seat in an open 2022 election when Niou ran unsuccessfully for Congress .

Endorsement Profile

Throughout his career, Kavanagh has received endorsements from the Working Families Party, the New York League of Conservation Voters, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and multiple Democratic clubs in Lower Manhattan . FairVote presented him with its Champion of Democracy Award . New Yorkers Against Gun Violence awarded him the Detective McDonald Law Enforcement Award in 2019 . He also received the CUNY Baruch College Legislator of the Year Award and the League of Conservation Voters Eco-Star Award .